Firefly
by Isaromy
Summary: Rikugo, Akia, and Tonbo. After graduating, they are put in the same Genin team. Will their extreme differences separate them or will they find a way to work together? Surviving in the unforgiving world of the shinobi will be a challenge every step of the way. They might even end up with only each other to depend on.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: insert witty chapter title here

"Do I really have to do this? This is child labour at its finest!" A twelve year old blonde five foot boy whined as he leaned onto the Yamanaka flower shop counter.

"Hush Rikugo, you're only helping out for a week so your cousin Ino can focus on her studies," said Yamanaka Seiko, his mother and his only parent.

"Right, because I don't need to study. Can't believe you fell for uncle's lame excuse," he shouted while staring at a fuchsia pink orchid that matched his own eye color.

"Thank you and have a nice day!" smiled his mother, the pink orchid disappearing with its buyer.

"Now off you go, you're going to be late for class," she sent Rikugo off with hug like she usually did. He sighed and hugged her back. It became a ritual after his father never came back from a mission. Since that day, Rikugo had been training tirelessly to learn mind control jutsus partly due to the fact that his mother was too nice and often got taken advantage of. One thing he could never forgive was people toying with his mother, even if said person was his uncle.

The streets of Konoha were bustling with lively villagers as always. Rikugo ended up getting side-tracked by nearly everything. It took him longer than expected to reach the school gates.

The class hadn't started yet which was a good sign. He rushed over to take a seat beside his classmates, Tonbo and Akia.

Akia was a very quiet girl. She rarely spoke to anyone. However, she wasn't shy in the slightest. She just didn't really care about anyone, except for Naruto. Naruto was the only one who approached her without hesitation. Many of her classmates avoided her. Rikugo found her quite intriguing.

What most didn't know about her was that she was in fact Orochimaru's daughter. Her painful past made her very suspicious of everyone, and she always tried to avoid forming any type of bonds with anyone. She felt that getting attached to people was a weakness that she couldn't afford to have. Her only goal in life was to track Orochimaru down and kill him.

As for Tonbo, his neck was getting tired from stretching out so that he could see out of the window from where he was sitting. It didn't help that the tallest student in the class was right in his way. Sighing, he sat back to face the front and tilted his head to the side. It made a satisfying cracking sound. As he moved it some more to try and crack it again, he noticed that Akia and Rikugo had finally arrived. He gave them each a small smile, one that showed only on his lips, and stopped moving around so as to not weird them out too much.

Just then, Iruka Sensei cleared his throat to signal the beginning of class.

"Ahem, everyone settle down, please," Iruka-sensei inquired.

Curious about what was about to happen that day, almost everyone started quietly listening to what their Sensei had to say.

"I want to congratulate you all for successfully passing your graduation exams. As you all know, you will all be put into teams of three today, with a Jounin in charge."

Rikugo didn't mind being with anyone. Anyone, but Ino. Even though they were cousins, they constantly teased each other, and he was always on the receiving end of the teasing. Tonbo, on the other hand, actually would have liked to be in the same team as Ino. He found her kind of… decent. Akia didn't care in the least about what was happening. No matter who was on her team, she knew they'd drag her down.

Iruka-sensei was already calling out the names of the different teams. The more popular members of the class weren't called for a while. It was almost as though they were being saved for last. Girls (and boys) in the earlier teams manifested their frustration and disappointment, since they weren't the ones put with Sasuke. Sasuke was undoubtedly the most popular guy in their whole grade. Close to second was Rikugo because of his short blonde hair and sweet looks. Tonbo wasn't far behind either, being a half Uchiha, half Hyuuga. He was officially part of the Hyuuga clan, but harboured traits from both clans. For instance, his long pitch black hair, that would be otherwise brown if he was only a Hyuuga. One of his eyes was the characteristic white of the Hyuuga clan, and the other was black.

Iruka continued to match up students until he got to team 7. All eyes were on Sasuke, the class' big shot, who nearly had all the girls at school swooning. When Naruto was named, Akia's expression changed and Rikugo noticed a small twitch in her brows. On the other hand, his cousin Ino was losing her mind over having Sakura being part of team 7. Rikugo was trying his best not to laugh at her face, although what worried him more was how quiet Akia was being, more so than normal.

"Then we have Yamanaka Ino, Nara Shikamaru, and Akimichi Choji," Iruka-sensei continued.

Rikugo's face brightened up when he heard that. He wasn't in the same team as his annoying cousin. As for Tonbo, his shoulders slumped slightly...

After what seemed like a long time, Tonbo heard his own name being called out. Well, if he was being honest, he wasn't listening for names other than his own and Ino's, so he had no real concept of how much time had passed in between. He stood up as he had seen the others before him do and looked around for his partners.

He didn't need to look far: he had been sitting in between his new teammates since the beginning of his training years. In fact, the realisation dawned on him that everyone in the class was set up with the people they sat by. He raised an eyebrow at the sensei before turning to his team, team 11, to see if they had caught on to the sheer laziness of their teacher.

Rikugo was also beginning to notice who his teammates were. He gave them both a bright smile, which was reciprocated by only Tonbo. Akia didn't even bother looking at them. She already knew that they'd be in the same team, according to her observations of how the other teams were formed.

"The Jounin who will be in charge of you will be coming to get you anytime soon," Iruka-sensei smiled at his classroom.

One by one, the Jounin came in and called out their team's number and members. A Jounin, who had a toothpick in his mouth and a bandana on his head, came in.

"I'm here for… Team 11, Yamanaka Rikugo, Hyuuga Tonbo, and Akia."

The three of them then immediately got up and followed their new Sensei.

It seemed like forever when Team 11 reached a secluded forest nearby the school.

"Hope you're not all tired from a little speed walking. We haven't even gotten started yet. Oh I forgot to mention my name."

The man took out his toothpick to speak clearer.

"It's Shiranui Genma, but you kids can call me Genma-sensei."

The whole team was breathing and panting by the time they reached their destination. Said power walk was a game of cat and mouse with their assigned sensei over the entire village. Rikugo held onto his knees for support while his teammates did the same.

Genma once again shoved his wooden chip at the corner off his mouth as he proceeded to explain their first test, completely dismissing the run as any sort of evaluation itself.

Rikugo wished he could hear better because their sensei's mouth was so busy munching on the piece of wood for him to understand the instructions.

From what Tonbo could decipher from the older man's muttering, the team was to work together to find some sort of chest in the forest. The rest of the details were lost on him. Genma-sensei finished giving the instructions then proceeded to jump up into the air and vanish, leaving the three to go about this new mission on their own.

Scratching his nose pensively, Tonbo turned to Akia, who seemed to be the only one who wasn't completely lost.

"So do we just go in then?" He asked, pointing to the forest behind him.

She was slightly frowning, in deep thought over what their new Sensei had just told them. She then finally looked at her teammates for the first time that day.

"He said to work together to find the chest," Akia said in a cool tone.

Tonbo and Rikugo, a little surprised at hearing her talk to them, slowly nodded.

"I think," Akia started explaining her thoughts, "that this means that what he wants us to find is hidden somewhere where it is impossible for only one person to find."

"So somewhere dangerous? Or did you have something else in mind?" Tonbo's words were directed to either one of his teammates.

"Either that or…" Akia said pensively. "Maybe it's got something to do with a timer."

"Like a timed trap?" Rikugo suggested.

"How would that work?" Tonbo asked, a little confused.

"Maybe getting the chest will inevitably trigger a trap," Akia laid down her hypothesis.

"Anywho, if there is a timer somewhere and a chest, wouldn't we need a key?" thought Rikugo out loud.

"Does any one of you have a tracking jutsu?" Akia said.

"I could use my byakugan? I'm not very good with it yet, but it's worth a try?" Tonbo scratched his nose again.

"That seems to be our best option at the moment. We can track our sensei's chakra back to where the chest is… but I feel like there's a catch. It's too easy" stated Rikugo to Tonbo and Akia, looking around aimlessly for any clues.

"There's always a catch, but we'll have to just go along with this plan for now," Akia stated, "we'll figure things out as we go along."

The three of them then started going deeper into the forest, with Tonbo keeping a lookout for anything that looked suspicious. After going around for a while, however, his Byakugan just couldn't find anything.

"I really don't see anything out of the ordinary around here…" Tonbo's shoulders sunk in defeat.

"Strange," Akia mumbled.

"You know, maybe Genma-sensei did something to conceal the presence of the chest," Rikugo said while scratching his chin, "it's worth considering, right?"

"Yeah… But even if it was hidden, if my technique was better I would have been able to find what we're looking for…" A strange feeling churned in the pit of his stomach. Tonbo zoned the other two out for a moment, trying to focus harder, then a realisation hit him.

"Or maybe I'm looking for the wrong thing?" He asked out loud, looking up to the sky.

Rikugo followed Tonbo's stare to the skies. If Tonbo couldn't track it, maybe he could help. He stared at a passing bird.

Mind control with animals wasn't his speciality but if he could tap into their memory he might be able to catch a glimpse of Genma-sensei placing the chest. Granted if it really was a chest.

Nonetheless he couldn't help but feel uncomfortable with switching places with a bird. Who knew what kind of embarrassing things the bird might do while in his body. He shivered at the thought, earning weird glares from the others.

Rikugo then took a deep sigh before explaining what he had in mind.

"Alright, I don't really like to use this, but it's our best option…"

"What is?" Tonbo curiously asked.

"See that bird up there?" Rikugo pointed at the bird.

His two teammates then shifted their attention to it.

"I have to act quick before it leaves," Rikugo did a bunch of handsigns, concentrating his chakra into his jutsu, "just take care of my body while I'm gone…"

Before Tonbo or Akia could say anything, Rikugo was already casting the jutsu.

"Mind Switch Jutsu!"

Tonbo caught Rikugo's body as it went limp. He shifted the other man into a comfortable sitting position, leaning him against a nearby tree, then squinted up at the bird they had seen before. He couldn't help but wonder what would happen if he had missed his target. He imagined the blond's spirit continuing on into space, quietly exiting this world and never coming back.

I hope he took care of whatever he needed to do here on Earth before leaving us, he thought, then slumped down next to him and kept on staring.

As soon as Rikugo reached the bird's brain, he felt the sudden confinement.

"Okay, okay now is not the time to freak out. I have to concentrate before I crash" said Rikugo shutting out all the outside noise and focusing on the core memories he needed.

Its underground, there's something underground but I can't make out what it is, Rikugo thought.

Tonbo then noticed that Rikugo's body was twitching. Akia also directed her attention to the previously immobile body.

"What the… Rikugo?" Tonbo gasped.

"Hold him down!" Akia commanded before she herself held Rikugo's arms down.

Rikugo, or at least his body, was contorting in bizarre ways. He was trying to flap his arms like a bird, and he was letting out strange shrieks.

Back to where Rikugo's mind now was, he was able to find out from the bird's memories that it had seen Genma burying something deep underground.

"Release!" Rikugo switched back to tell them about the hidden object. When he got back to his body, he found his two teammates holding him down.

"Hey guys, let go!"

Seeing that he was back to normal, Akia and Tonbo let him go.

"Was I acting weird…?" Rikugo hesitantly asked.

"A little bit of warning beforehand would've been appreciated!" Tonbo replied.

"Hehe, sorry about that. Anyway listen to this…" Rikugo started explaining about how the bird had seen Genma bury something something underground. He didn't exactly know where it was, however, since the bird's memory was very hazy.

"I think our best bet is searching the ground," Rikugo concluded.

"The ground… Tonbo, this time use your Byakugan and focus solely on the ground," Akia said.

Tonbo hesitated before activating his kekkei genkai again. Last time things hadn't gone as planned and his pride was already bruised from it. But this seemed to be the plan they were going with so he went ahead and followed Akia's orders. It was weird how she had somehow become the leader of their little ragtag group.

"Oh, I see something," he said after a good while of searching. He squinted his eyes and…

"What the?" He jerked backwards, revolted by what he was watching.

"What is it?!" Rikugo jumped at Tonbo's sudden outburst.

"It's… It's!" Tonbo tried to answer.

"What is it already?" Akia asked, the only one who seemed to keep their calm.

"It's RATS!" He gasped, his eyes wide and the effects of his byakugan faded out. With his eyes back to normal, terror and disgust were now clearly evident on his face. His hand went to cover his mouth as a feeble attempt to help control his gag reflexes.

"Rats?" Akia asked. She poked him with her toe to get him to start moving in the direction he clearly didn't want to move in.

Rikugo sighed in relief.

"Geez, it's only rats… I thought you found a dead body or something."

Tonbo reluctantly started to walk towards the swarm of rats he had been forced to see with his own two eyes. His teammates followed close behind.

"It's over there, behind that hill," he said moments later, pointing in the direction of the nest. The sound of squeaking could be heard for some time now and he twitched every time, looking like he was about to go through some kind of seizure. Sighing, Rikugo and Akia left him behind as they went over the hill.

Akia stepped through the swarm of rodents to where they seemed to be gathering and looked closely at the dirt beneath them, not afraid to kick one of the tiny creatures if they got in her way. She noted that they were in fact shrews and not rats by the way they viciously gnawed at her ankles. Leaning down to touch the earth, she gave a simple nod to confirm that there was indeed something buried deep down beneath it.

"There's something there?" Rikugo asked. Akia was too concerned with looking at how the dirt was stirred to reply what she thought she had already made obvious.

It wasn't in the usual pattern that a rodent would leave. It was almost as if it was forcefully stirred by something or someone, in an effort to conceal something, while trying to make it look natural.

"We'll have to dig this out," Akia said.

"How do you want to go about doing that?" Rikugo asked Akia while avoiding all the angry shrews. "These things are practically trying to eat us alive, by us just being close to their nest…"

Akia didn't bother answering and did a few handsigns. Once she started to concentrate her chakra, her usual black eyes became the yellow colour of a lizard's with her iris slitting the yellow colour in half.

"Hidden Shadow Snake!"

Snakes came out of her sleeves and dispatched all over the ground.

"Feed, my pets," Akia said in a sweet voice, completely defying her usual cold character.

The change in tone sent chills all over Rikugo's body.

He was glad that Tonbo wasn't here to see the carnage of blood soiling at their feet.

The snakes assaulted the panicked shrews mercilessly, even going as far as suffocating those who desperately dug for an escape.

He swore he saw a smile on Akia's lips.

The area was easily cleared, but the chest itself was covered by a thick barrier with a special seal. One that they never studied in class.

"What do you suppose this is?" Rikugo asked Akia, wondering if she had an answer to that too.

She frowned, annoyed at herself for not having an answer.

"Get that wimp here; he might know something," Akia demanded, with no particular maliciousness attached to her words.

Rikugo snickered at her choice of words and hurried back to where Tonbo was. When he reached him, he told him what had happened, and reassured him by telling him that no rodents were left around. After a bit of convincing, Tonbo finally followed Rikugo to where Akia was waiting. Akia motioned towards the seal she had uncovered at her feet.

"Do you have any idea what this is?" Akia asked, hoping he'd know.

"It's a seal," he said simply, making his way over to it to better observe it. When he reached down to touch it with his naked hand, he received a shock.

"I think I recognise the handy work of this…" Tonbo tried to remember where he had last seen a similar barrier seal before. He thought back to the other week, where he had snuck into Konoha's library after hours looking for something on the gentle fist technique of his forefathers. He made a face, remembering the lame excuses his father had come up with to try and keep him from researching said techniques, forcing him (though not quite) into the life of an outlaw.

Digging a little deeper into his memory, he remembered a similar shocking sensation when accidentally brushing past the door to a sealed off room. Had he not been a curious man, he would have no knowledge at all on how to get past this barrier.

"We need to infuse this seal with different types of chakra. I guess that's why we needed to do this test thing together."

He gave a small smile to his teammates, again, one that only showed on his lips.

Each to their own they concentrated enough chakra into their palms, but not enough to overwhelm one another.

Team 11 pressed onto the barrier together, sending a shock strong enough to break it. The seal burned away, leaving the chest defenceless and open for grabs.

The treasure cove opened by itself with a sharp cracking sound. Awaiting a trap, they all stood in a defensive stance, ready for anything, but nothing came.

They all stood dumbfounded by its content.

An old scrap of paper covered with what looked like miso soup stains and precisely three packs of toothpicks.

On the note read "Congratulations!"

Suddenly a poof was heard behind them.

"Great job, guys. You can go home," Genma said in a lazy tone.

The three turned around with annoyed looks on their faces.

"We did all that for this?" Rikugo took a pack of toothpicks and shook it in frustration.

"Toothpicks are very useful," Genma said in an overly serious tone, "these are from my personal collection. You should be flattered I gave you each a pack."

Akia and Rikugo sighed in exasperation. Tonbo, on the other hand, was thrilled with the present. His father always used up all of the toothpicks at home, making weird little furnitures with them as a hobby.

"Genma-sensei, thanks for this! I really needed it."

Akia and Rikugo looked weirdly at their teammate. Genma, on the other hand, gave him an approving smile.

"That's how you should be when you receive a gift," Genma said to the other two.

"Is that all?" Akia flatly asked.

"Man, no need to be so unfriendly," Genma mumbled, still chewing on his toothpick, making it almost impossible for his team to hear what he said. He then coughed to clear his voice.

"Anyway, meet up at the Hokage's office tomorrow at eight in the morning. We need to start and take on some missions."

After saying that, Genma left. Tonbo, Rikugo, and Akia stood there for a bit, before coming to the full realization of what had just happened. Akia was the first one to start walking back to the village. Rikugo and Tonbo then followed suit. They all needed to get to their respective home and rest in preparation for the next day.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: another witty title, if you please

Akia made her way back to her apartment room. Fumbling in her pockets to find her keys, she noticed that Naruto had also come back. His apartment was the one right next to hers. When he saw her, he smiled brightly.

"Akki-chan!"

For the first time that day, Akia let her guard down and relaxed. She gave Naruto a small smile. Instead of going into their respective home, they both decided to spend some time in each others' company on the rooftop.

Naruto told Akia about how him and his team met Kakashi Hatake, their Sensei, and how they were put through a test using bells. Akia didn't really get the details, since Naruto was never really good at explaining things.

"So, what happened with you, Akki-chan?"

"We went on a kind of a treasure hunt."

She told him about the events of the day, and then took out the box of toothpicks.

"You know, I think these might make good weapons, if used in the right way," Akia pondered.

"Haha, I can't believe you got toothpicks after all that."

Akia snickered. She felt like she could be herself around Naruto. She wasn't sure about the reason why she felt that way. Was it because he was so friendly? Or was it because both of them were so similar? They both lived without their parents. Naruto was an orphan, and Akia only had her father left, whom she considered her ultimate nemesis. The reason? Among the many unforgivable things he did, he, for one, had killed her mother right in front of her eyes.

"Ah, it's getting late," Naruto noted.

"Yeah, we should both go. Tomorrow is going to be a long day."

They each wished each other goodnight before going back in.

The next day, Akia arrived right on time in front of the Hokage's office, where her team was supposed to meet up.

Tonbo had already been there for hours. After the first couple of minutes of waiting alone, he had started to practice one of the intricate dances his father had taught him. He was starting to get the twirls just right when he noticed his female teammate watching him from the corner of his eye. Of course, she was pretending to look elsewhere, but Tonbo was too used to people looking away at the last minute to not realise that she was interested in what he was doing. He didn't say anything, he simply stopped dancing, leaned against the wall of the building and gave her a nod in greeting.

As per usual, Rikugo got side tracked by street vendors and other daily activities to notice that he was probably going to be the last one there.

Upon his arrival, Tonbo and Akia were already waiting for him. They stood under the shade of a tree outside the Hokage's office, not particularly talking or anything, almost as if they were trying to avoid a subject.

Rikugo just smiled and strolled towards them, trying to see if Genma-sensei had arrived yet.

"You're late," a looming voice came from behind Rikugo.

The blonde boy jumped and instantly turned around to find a frowning Genma.

"I'm sorry! Please don't kill me!" Rikugo desperately pleaded.

Genma sighed and walked back to where his team was.

"I won't kill you… Just don't do it again. Let's go, we're already late enough."

Akia immediately followed Genma, while Tonbo was waiting for Rikugo to catch up before the both of them went running after the other two...

The Hokage's desk was cluttered with papers and Tonbo wondered how he managed to find anything on there. He zoned everyone out as their sensei explained the whole mission system, then tuned back in when he heard something about corn.

"We'll be doing what?" The Uchiha-Hyuuga mix asked in his usual neutral tone, which made their sensei's head cock slightly to the side, unsure whether his student was asking because he was surprised or because he wasn't listening.

"Harvesting corn," Akia supplied, seeing as their sensei was still pondering the hidden meaning of Tonbo's question and Rikugo seemed just as lost as the latter.

"Corn…?" The blonde of the trio replied with a frown. Beside him, Tonbo finally caught onto the objective of the mission.

This has to be another joke, Tonbo thought.

"Alright squirts, you hear the man. No time to waste," interjected Genma, earning the attention of his students.

The team, guided by their sensei, made it not too far from the village. To be precise they were at the outskirts of their base.

The farmers soon crowded them and humbly asked for help. Genma took care of the formalities while the three stood in awe at the burning sun shining and at the sheer size of the fields.

"Bad news. As we already know, most of the harvesters have come up with a flu which left them short on staff, but I was just told that their due date for crop gathering is tomorrow or else they will get a sanction. One that will undoubtedly crush their already dissipating economy. Judging by the size of this land, it's not going to be an easy feat, well for you kids at least," finished Genma, sending off a farmer who went back to tend to his sickly friends.

"Hmph," Akia snorted. She felt a bit underestimated.

Tonbo, on the other hand, was looking at the huge field with the enormity of it suddenly dawning upon him. Rikugo wasn't feeling any better about this. He felt like it would take an eternity to get all of this done. Akia was already planning how she would go about getting everything done in the most time efficient way. It wouldn't take long if they had more people.

"Genma-sensei," Akia went up to her Sensei, "Do me a favour."

Genma, surprised by her straightforwardness, nodded. She then asked him to tell everyone to get away from the field. He did as she said, and the field was cleared of all the workers. Akia then focused her chakra on the mud around which began to stir and take form. In an instant, clones of Akia materialized out of the mud. Her teammates watched her in wonder. Genma was also impressed by the high level ninjutsu she was using.

Akia's clones and herself lined up along one side of the field and extended they arms.

"Hidden Shadow Snakes!" Akia focused her chakra.

From all the clones' sleeves, snakes came slithering out. Their mouths then opened and blades sprung out. Controlling their trajectory, Akia and her clones cut through the base of the corn stems. The clones then kept advancing after taking care of the first lanes.

Genma then gave orders to everyone to gather what was cut and left behind Akia and her clones.

Tonbo watched the whole scene go down, his mouth slightly agape. When Akia's clones summoned snakes of their own, the tween was concerned for how much chakra she must have been using. He went over to her and grasped at her sleeve.

"You didn't have to, you know? We have all day to do this," he whispered, sending some of his own chakra through the fibers of her clothes and into her body to help replenish what she lost.

Akia, feeling chakra flow through her, looked at Tonbo with surprise. She wasn't feeling particularly low on chakra, but she really didn't expect him to care.

"Even if we have all day," Akia replied, "if we can finish it up in a few hours, then why not? You don't have to worry about me, I know my limits."

Tonbo shrugged and gave her a small smile. He didn't stop trying to replenish her chakra.

She then gave up on reasoning with him and kept going with cutting through the stems.

Standing off a little to the side and still amazed by Akia's jutsu, Rikugo watched, motionless, as his teammates ravaged the fields. Snapping out of his trance, he hurried and made clones of himself.

"Shadow clone jutsu!" He shouted, summoning as many as he could, which wasn't as impressive in numbers as Akia. At this rate there was no way he could retrieve all of the corn in a timely manner that nearly matched the speed at which she worked.

"Sensei! I need nets! Lots of them!" He shouted, trying to keep up with the snake user.

"Why do I get bossed around?" Genma tsked and grabbed various nets and tossed them towards Rikugo.

Tonbo now felt bad that Rikugo was made to pick up all the corn by himself. He let go of Akia's sleeve for a moment, the time to cast a few shadow clones of his own, and sent them off to help collect. He felt his head spin but he shook the dizziness off and went back to helping Akia.

"Don't overdo it," Akia told Tonbo.

"I'm fine," Tonbo tried to focus, "don't worry about me."

Akia felt like he would collapse if he used any more chakra. She then retracted her snakes, while letting her clones continue on. Tonbo, noticing how she stopped, let go of her sleeve. Without any warning, Akia took his hand and infused him with her chakra.

"Use that to see with your Byakugan when I actually need chakra," Akia said in a softer tone, "don't waste yours for no reason."

She then went back to where she left off.

Tonbo bit his lip and made a small 'hm' sound. He crossed his arms and watched his and his teammates' clones work, occasionally looking over to Akia to make sure she was holding up alright. He didn't bother using his byakugan, she seemed to be holding up rather well on her own now that he was actually watching her.

Rikugo stopped when he noticed that his teammates were slowing down. He turned back to see that Akia and Tonbo weren't in their best shapes.

Probably low on chakra, he thought.

He sprinted towards them, but went silent when he saw them holding hands. They immediately pulled away.

"Err, okay I'll just pretend I didn't see anything. I might be able to help us boost our chakra but only for a short while so we have to make this quick, we're all running out of chakra anyways. Just don't freak out. It won't hurt much," said Rikugo as he pressed his hands unto Akia's and Tonbo's foreheads unlocking a small chakra channel that was usually blocked by the subconsciousness. Suddenly he felt a slight shock run through his fingers from touching Akia. Rikugo whined and pulled away.

"What the?" He looked at his burned fingertips.

Akia immediately took Rikugo's hands in hers, examining the severity of the burn. She sighed in relief when she noticed that it wasn't anything too serious. She then looked at Rikugo, apologetically.

"Sorry about that," she whispered.

"Huh," Rikugo exclaimed, confused by her caring reaction, "it's not your fault! But… what was that?"

Akia lowered her gaze.

"There's something… I need to tell you guys," she looked seriously into Tonbo and Rikugo's eyes, "after we finish up with this mission, I'll give you a proper explanation."

She sincerely felt apologetic towards how the two of them exerted themselves for her sake. Akia thought that maybe she should try to open up a little to them.

Tonbo cocked his head to the side, not sure what to make of all of that. Instead of staying confused, he turned to Rikugo.

"The burns don't look bad but we should probably still ice them." He took out his water pack that was still cold from this morning and placed it on the burns.

Rikugo just nodded at Akia's explanation, not wanting to put her in a spot and focused on the soothing coldness that Tonbo pressed against his damaged fingers.

"Thanks, it helps a lot," he said, giving Tonbo a cheeky grin, which was returned with a sharp nod.

Meanwhile their clones worked the fields, plowing their ways through acres and acres of corn.

Leaning on the corner of a village hut and observing everything, Genma snorted.

"Ahh youth. Such adorable children they are. But you're not too bad yourself," stated an old lady hunching unto her cane as she winked at Genma.

A sweat drop hung over Genma's head. He let out a nervous laugh before sneakily getting away. He joined up with his team, who were nearly done with everything.

The sun was starting to set when they had all finally finished things up.

"Good job, everyone," Genma said while chewing on a new toothpick, "let's go back and report to the Hokage."

Although they may have finished their mission relatively early considering all of the work that needed to be done, the three tweens were exhausted. Or, at least Rikugo and Tonbo were. Akia was also tired, but more on an emotional level for having to struggle to not fall for her teammates' charms.

As team 11 made their way back towards the village, a few farmers met them at the edge of the fields to see them off. The ninja were rewarded each a basket full of corn to take back with them as a thank you for their help.

Letting out a yawn, Tonbo smiled at the elderly woman handing him his basket and said a great big thank you.

"Good jobs kiddos, I will be reporting back so all of you can go home. I'll see you all tomorrow, same time, same place," interjected Genma as they reached the main gates. Akia waited for their teacher to leave to pull Tonbo and Rikugo aside.

She then started slowly walking ahead, motioning for the two guys to keep up with her. Her two teammates didn't need further instruction to know to follow suit. She wanted to reach a place where they could comfortably talk with no one intruding. After a bit of walking, they all reached a secluded part of the training field. Akia then stopped in her tracks and gathered up all of her courage before turning around to face her teammates. She couldn't look them in the eyes, however.

"Akia..." Rikugo hesitantly called out to her.

She let out a quiet sigh. No use in staling any longer.

"There's something that you both need to know," Akia blurted out.

They both gulped before slowly nodding.

It's their right to know… Akia thought.

"I think you two already know that I'm not exactly what you'd call… normal," Akia took a deep breath, "the only thing that you need to know for now is that I will probably never run low on chakra because… I have a monster sealed within me…"

She wasn't planning on telling them anything more for the moment. It already took a lot of her energy to say this much. Akia was waiting for their reaction. She was waiting for them to shun her, like most people.

Tonbo hesitated and looked between Rikugo and Akia, not sure how to take in that bit of information. After a moment of tense silence, he finally spoke out.

"Well you don't seem harmful. I don't think it will be a problem? Just… let me know if you need anything, I guess. It's good to know that we have a source of unlimited chakra with us though." He gave her a hopeful smile, which this time showed in his eyes as well.

Rikugo could feel the tension around Akia's aura, but he couldn't understand why. Maybe something bad happened to her before because of this secret, he thought looking back from Tonbo's gaze to meet her unwilling one.

"Tonbo's right, you haven't been using it to hurt others… well not on purpose anyways!" he exclaimed, hiding his fingers.

"Besides, I find it kind of awesome. I mean it's not everyday we get to meet someone with such kickass abilities," he continued, hiding a small blush, embarrassed from getting worked up like a child.

Surprised by her comrades' unexpected positive reactions, Akia finally met their gaze. She then lowered her head again to hide a small smile. They accepted her so easily. She had thought that Naruto would be the only one she could open up to, since he was in the same situation as her. But, she realized that there are other people out there who actually genuinely cared. She might've not told them everything, but, one day she thought she might, without fear of getting hurt.

Tonbo and Rikugo noticed the smile that she tried to conceal. They felt that they were getting closer to each other. Team 11 may have been great for each other after all.


End file.
